Opinions - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | DARTS LAURELS

Darts & Laurels - January 27, 2017

Jan. 26, 2017

First off, President Donald Trump has passed a handful of contentious executive actions within his first week in office. These range from cutting federal funds to organizations that provide or “promote” abortions overseas to ordering the construction of two highly controversial oil pipelines, the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines. If there was a way to even further alienate the half of the country that did not vote for him, boy did he do that. All the claims of “Give him a chance!” seem a little too late right now. The extreme things that half of the country feared the most — the ones they were told would not happen — well, it looks like they’re happening. So a dart through all 12 executive orders or memoranda Trump has signed so far.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Maybe the sun has been out the whole time

Jan. 25, 2017

Take a look around.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

The dystopian reality we now face

Jan. 25, 2017

When we first started comparing the future of America to a dystopian nation, it stemmed mostly from curiosity — from a desire to expose you, dear reader, to dystopian novels outside of the stereotypical “1984” — and to challenge you to think critically about the

OPINION | EDITORIALS

On adding coding to kids’ curriculums

Jan. 24, 2017

This past weekend UF hosted its third annual hack-athon, SwampHacks. More than 500 college students attended this event, not just from our campus, but from places all over Florida and Georgia. For those of you not familiar with what a hack-athon is, it goes a little something like this: You and three other students have a set amount of time (in this case it was 36 hours) to code something — literally anything. This sounds intimidating to those not familiar, but don’t be fooled. You don’t have to sit at your computer for 36 hours straight. There are workshops, activities and plenty of food. And, believe it or not, you don’t have to come in with any coding knowledge.

OPINION | COLUMNS

The lines we draw: examining the inadvertent costs of a party system

Jan. 24, 2017

Group mentality is the foundation of society. It is something we rarely scrutinize. We are born into a dozen groups based on our circumstances and will join a dozen more over our lifetime. Have you ever asked about the costs of membership?

OPINION | COLUMNS

How a relationship with Tinder can be a self-destructive obsession for some

Jan. 24, 2017

Open your eyes. You are on your back, staring at a ceiling you do not recognize. The smell of incense fills the air. You hate incense. A pungent smoke coils out of the slender brown stick’s glowing red tip and floats up towards the spinning fan. Your lip is bleeding. Your Tinder date likes it rough.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Why hobbies are a fundamental human quality

Jan. 24, 2017

It is a new year, which means there is more opportunity to create new habits. At this point in our lives, I find it is difficult to form, discover or practice hobbies. Yet, I feel that practicing hobbies, or “hobbying” (yes, I created a new word), is a fundamental quality of what it means to be human. Monkeys don’t do yoga in their spare time; dogs don’t sit down with a block of wood and create something beautiful. Only humans do. Not only is having a hobby an important aspect of being human, it is also a means of seeing the world in a new light. Hobbies deepen our experience of nature, of other people and of ourselves.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Learn, evaluate and reason your opinion

Jan. 23, 2017

There is a lot of political news going on right now. You could say that about the whole year, but it seems that in the last few days there have been protests and protests of those protests. There have been things signed and things allegedly signed. There has been praise of the protests and criticisms of the protests. There has been praise of the signed things and also criticisms of those same signed things. It’s an information overload.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Should we care about what celebrities say?

Jan. 23, 2017

The abstract concept of celebrities has confounded and fascinated many of us as we’ve grown up. Some of us think about it more than others, regularly scrolling through celebrities’ Instagram accounts and consuming tabloid news with zeal. On the other hand, some of us ignore celebrities as much as society allows us, disenchanted by their self-appointed responsibility as the voice for the masses despite their immense privilege. Either way, these potent feelings often contribute to some sort of opinion towards celebrities in general, and the past few weeks were no exception.

OPINION | COLUMNS

A criticism of complaints and a discussion of whether they are justifiable

Jan. 23, 2017

To everyone who considers me to be some liberal guy who has way too much pent-up anger about recent issues and complains about them constantly, I apologize. Through reflection, I’ve realized all my pieces so far have been critiques. They’ll probably stay that way. My first guest piece was a critique, and my last regular piece may be as well. I consider critiques to be an opposing opinion that the critiqued could learn something from — and by no means am I exempt from this. So please, if you believe I could be doing anything different which would be beneficial in any manner, then comment on my piece, send me a message of any kind, etc. I will fully accept any criticism and try to learn.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Americans voters have no obligation to respect or support President Trump

Jan. 22, 2017

People are splitting hairs over whether protesting Donald Trump is protesting the office of the presidency or protesting his views.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Take a walk in their shoes, and spread the love

Jan. 22, 2017

Anyone who has read John Green’s “The Fault in Our Stars” is familiar with the quote, “You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, but you do have some say in who hurts you.” While I’d argue that this quote is accurate in the context of this novel, it isn’t as accurate in the grand scheme of things. In this world, you don’t get a say if you get hurt, and you often don’t have a say in who (or what) hurts you either.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

It’s our job to keep America great

Jan. 22, 2017

On Friday, Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of our nation, and the winds of change have begun to blow across the country — we felt them quite literally Sunday.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Stand up for your beliefs

Jan. 19, 2017

Today, the nation’s 45th president will place his hand on the Bible, swear the oath of office and assume the presidency. In turn, Michelle, Malia, Sasha, Bo and Sunny Obama will leave the White House. From this day forward, we’ll refer to Barack Obama as our former president.

OPINION | COLUMNS

A Trump presidency is not the end of feminism

Jan. 19, 2017

Well, dear reader, today is the day we have been insurmountably hoping would never come — Inauguration Day.

OPINION | COLUMNS

The gripping power of a single tweet: 140 characters or less

Jan. 19, 2017

A lot of knowledge can be packed into the tiny text boxes of Twitter — this sentence alone is less than 140 characters from start to finish.

OPINION | DARTS LAURELS

Darts & Laurels: January 20, 2017

Jan. 19, 2017

We’ll start off with some trivial internet culture stories. Zoo Miami humanely euthanized one of their gorillas this week — their 49-year-old matriarch, Josephine, the grandmother of internet-sensation Harambe. Really, 2017? You’re going to hit us with that right off the bat? Please, internet, don’t turn this one into a 6-month-long meme. Thankfully, Josephine was laid to rest peacefully after years of failing health. But we throw a dart at the universe for setting 2017 off with another gorilla death just as we begged it for no more shenanigans.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

A guide to preventing a (hypothetical) dystopia

Jan. 18, 2017

Welcome to another discussion about the potential dystopian fate of the U.S. Last week, we discussed how the nation combines elements of a Huxleyan and Orwellian dystopia — a mix of gratification and censorship. This is all completely hypothetical, of course,

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Maintaining the Gainesville spirit as the city expands

Jan. 17, 2017

Walking through this city, one notices quite a few places of business that, more than any others, scream “Gainesville.” Satchel’s Pizza, Maude’s Cafe and the Hippodrome State Theatre are among the most well-known of these hyper-local joints. Though much of the city is structured around UF, if you want to get a look at the real Gainesville, you need to step beyond the comforts of campus and frequent the wide array of small, local businesses Gainesville has to offer. Sure, we’re no big city like Atlanta or San Francisco, but there is a unique flavor to Gainesville — a combination of small-town America and big-name campus — and the businesses and events that make it a one-of-a-kind city.

OPINION | COLUMNS

The life of a musician is depressing, yet interesting

Jan. 17, 2017

When I was a kid, listening to music was an escape from the mundane. There was nothing I loved more than sitting in the back seat for a long drive with my headphones on. I found myself moved by catchy melodies and guitars. I loved rock ‘n’ roll so much, I wanted to play the guitar myself. My dad bought me a small, no-name nylon-string acoustic at the guitar shop where I signed up to take weekly lessons. The first time I picked up that cheap instrument, I was disappointed to learn that playing the guitar wasn’t something I could do naturally. I didn’t understand how the thing worked. Once I started taking lessons, I found that practicing was boring and painful.